OUR  PARKS 


TO  BE  OR  NOT  TO  BE. 


Papers  read  before  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  April  30,  1877 
and  February  1,  1878. 


By  EDWARD  SEGUIN,  M.D. 


THIRD  EDTTTOX. 


Printed  for  the  Public  Parks  Protective  Association. 


NEW  YORK: 
BRENT  ANO'S  LITERARY  EMPORIUM. 
39  Union  Square. 
1878. 


iEx  IGihrta 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


'When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  hook 

Because  it  has  heen  said 
"Sver'thing  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  hook." 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


OUR  PARKS 


TO  BE  OR  NOT  TO  BE. 


Papers  head  before  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  April  30,  1877, 
and  February  1,  1878. 


By  EDWARD  SEGUIN,  M.D. 


THIRD  EDITION. 


Printed  for  the  Public  Parks  Protective  Association. 


NEW  YORK: 
[  BRENT  ANO'S  LITERARY  EMPORIUM. 
39  Union  Squake. 
1878. 


• 


AA 


OUR  PARKS. 


"  I  want  our  parks  preserved  as  playgrounds  and  improved  as  garden-schools, 
for  my  grandsons  Edward  and  John." — E.  S. 


To  save  our  parks  will  save  hundreds  of  children  and  improve 
thousands.  To  not  improve  these  parks  is  to  abandon  them  to 
the  beast  of  prey  which  is  devouring  American  civilization.  To 
claim  these  parks  for  any  other  purposes  than  recreation,  in- 
struction, and  hygiene,  is  the  reverse  of  the  progressive  move- 
ment of  our  age. 

The  New  York  city  parks  have  been  either  acquired  by  con- 
tract with  the  people's  money,  for  the  recreation  of  said  people 
and  the  education  of  their  children,  like  the  Central  Park;  or 
given  for  the  same  purposes  by  deeds  of  benevolent  citizens,  like 
most  of  the  Washington  Square  grounds ;  and  tradition  has 
consecrated  the  others  to  the  same  usage  by  a  right  which  is 
respected  in  all  civilized  countries — the  right  of  Prescription. 
To  try  to  nullify  these  three  forms  of  right  of  a  hard-worked 

and  crowded  population  to  pure  air  is  audacity  ;  and 

something  besides. 

But  the  recently  unveiled  plan  of  seizing  one  of  our  parks, 
then  another,  and  all  in  succession,  for  the  lounging  and  parad- 
ing of  militiamen,  is  anachronism.  All  nations  now  send  their 
militia  to  the  field  of  manoeuvre  every  year,  and  excuse  them 
from  the  painful  duty  of  frightening  the  servant-girls  and  their 
babies  in  the  squares — a  drill  sufficient  to  dress  the  bloody  gen- 
darmes of  Paris,  or  operatic  soldiers,  but  insufficient  to  initiate 
young  men  in  modern  warfare. 

A  year  ago,  none  knew  precisely  what  was  in  the  air  around 
our  parks ;  but  it  smelt  worse  than  gunpowder.  In  large  societies, 
as  in  deep  seas,  there  are  at  different  depths  contrary  currents. 
When  the  one  just  described  was  silently  running  towards  the 


4 


destruction  of  our  breathing-places,  another  movement  was  be- 
ginning for  their  improvement. 

Historically  and  philosophically  convinced  that  the  Institu- 
tions which  are  not  actively  improved  passively  deteriorate  till 
they  become  the  prey  of  the  wily,  and  considering  the  relations 
of  parks  and  gardens  to  public  health  and  education,  I  thought 
of  improving  the  parks  by  giving  in  them  more  room  to  hygien, 
and  by  developing  their  capacity  for  education.  In  this  view  I 
prepared  for  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  the  following 
paper,  which  was  read  the  30th  of  April,  1877. 


HYGIENIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  USE  OF  PUBLIC 

GROUNDS. 


§  I.  Historical  Garden-schools. 

The  parks  and  public  grounds  of  a  city  like  New  York  are 
too  much  considered  as  playthings  to  amuse  the  people  with,  or 
at  best  as  healthful  resorts  for  a  ride  or  walk.  If  they  are  really 
the  Commons  they  used  to  be,  and  as  they  are  yet  often  called, 
their  ideal  destination  must  be  the  common  weal,  in  which  enters 
largely  the  weal  of  the  swarming  young  folks. 

Truly,  ideals  vary  according  to  the  power  of  accommodation 
of  the  human  mind  to  ideas  ;  so  the  human  ideal  has  varied  a  good 
deal  from  time  to  time  in  regard  to  the  appointment  and  destina- 
tion of  public  grounds.  But  there  are  signs  that  public  opinion 
is  about  to  enlarge  its  view  of  them,  since  the  legislature  at 
Albany  has  under  consideration  a  plan  for  the  appropriation  of 
one  of  our  new  parks  for  educational  purposes. 

It  is  therefore  quite  opportune  to  reassert  the  natural  prin- 
ciples which  have  presided  over  the  management  of  historic 
public  grounds,  and  to  trace  an  outline  of  the  possible  applica- 
tion of  these  principles  to  the  management  of  our  own  parks, 
with  due  regard  to  the  difference  of  aim  in  different  societies. 

The  first  garden-schools  surrounded  the  temples  and  hospitals. 
When  the  school  became  independent,  it  carried  the  garden- 
teaching  in  its  protestantism  against  the  demoded  (out  of  fashion) 
gods.    Alexander  gave  his  old  teacher,  Aristotle,  one  of  these 


5 


garden -schools,  the  Nymphseum,  full  of  rare  plants  and  animals, 
where  he  could  both  study  and  teach. 

Tired  of  warring,  his  successors,  Eumenes,  Attains,  Ptolemgeus 
Soter,  transferred  their  rivalry  from  the  battle-field  to  their 
garden-schools,  where  the  fruits  of  Asia  were  acclimatized,  and 
where  vegetable  and  animal  anatomy  and  physiology  attained,  at 
once,  their  antique  excellence. 

Under  Theophrastus,  Zopyrus,  Erasistratus,  Nicander,  the 
school-gardens  of  Athens,  Pergamos,  Alexandria,  attracted  thou- 
sands of  students  of  nature.  Kings  felt  honored  by  being  their 
disciples,  and  toxicology  became  almost  a  royal  corner  in  sci- 
ence. In  it  Mithridates  acquired  a  fame  by  his  experiments  on 
conium,  opium,  hyoscyamus,  and  their  antidotes,  and  Cleopatra 
by  h'ers  on  animal  poisons,  under  the  tutorship  of  Cleophantus. 

Later  and  westward,  Theodoric  in  Lombardy,  and  Charle- 
magne in  his  whole  empire,  took  personal  pains  to  organize  gar- 
den-schools among  the  other  barriers  they  meant  to  oppose  to  the  . 
incoming  long  hibernation  of  the  human  mind.  But  all  in 
vain.  The  subsequent  awakening  took  place  in  the  model-gar- 
dens planned  and  grown  by  Alfonso  d'Est  and  Como  di  Medi- 
ci, where  was  prepared  a  new  bji'th  of  mankind,  forcibly  called 
Kenaissance.  Next,  Henry  de  Navarre  laid  out  the  Jardins  de 
Montpellier,  which  became  the  hot-bed  of  an  illustrious  line 
of  naturalists  and  physicians.  Soon  Buffon,  Daubenton,  Cuvier, 
de  Jussieu.  Lamarck  (the  intellectual  father  of  Charles  Darwin, 
by  the  by),  worked  with  their  brains  and  hands  to  the  creation 
and  successive  reorganizations  of  the  Jardiu  des  Plantes.  And 
to.  close,  without  completing  this  commanding  enumeration  of 
the  garden-schools,  and  of  their  creators,  the  last  French  Empire 
almost  counterbalanced  its  turpitudes  by  the  creation  of  the  Jar- 
dins  d'Acclimatation  of  Paris,  Nice,  and  Algiers. 

These  incomplete  reminiscences  are  intended  to  gain  your  ap- 
proval, and  to  win  your  support,  for  the  application  to  our  public 
grounds  and  parks  of  plans  akin  to — but  not  like — those  whose 
realization  has  made  famous  the  garden-schools  of  Pisa,  Flor- 
ence, Yenice,  Padua,  Chelsea,  Oxford,  Edinburgh,  Breslau,  Ley- 
den,  Brussels,  Geneva,  the  Luxembourg,  Kew,  and  Sydenham. 
To  be  brief,  I  will  restrict  my  suggestions  concerning  this 


6 


vast  subject  to  two  somewhat  correlated  points — the  use  of  public 
grounds  for  the  acclimatization  of  foreign  trees  and  plants  bene- 
ficial to  public  hygiene,  and  for  the  better  instruction  of  youth 
in  Rebus  Natures — a  more  comprehensive  expression,  I  think, 
than  our  Natural  History. 

But  a  previous  question :  Who  can  create  our  garden-schools 
.  .  .  ?  Architects  like  Yitruvius  or  Lenotre  may  build  them, 
naturalists  like  de  Candole  alone  can  plant  them.  But  even 
naturalists  must  be  charged  to  allow  no  room  for  bricks,  as  little 
as  possible  for  gravel,  aud  as  much  as  possible  for  vegetation. 
For,  if  it  is  a  sin  to  hasten  the  barrenness  of  the  earth,  which 
will  eventually  liken  it  to  a  dead  moon,  how  greater  is  the  of- 
fence of  purposely  extending  the  parchedness  to  the  very  grounds 
consecrated  to  the  perpetuity  of  this  world's  life  by  vegetation  % 

Second  only  to  this  duty  of  keeping  the  earth  green,  so  that 
it  will  not  lose  its  moist  atmosphere  and  shall  not  perish  by  our 
fault,  come  the  more  immediate  and  lesser  objects  I  have  men- 
tioned : 

§  II.  Cultivation  of  Febrifugal  Trees. 

We  advocate  the  planting  on  all  available  grounds — mainly 
on  those  which  belong  to  the  commonwealth — of  trees  which 
will  improve  the  general  health  of  the  surrounding  population, 
and  particularly  of  those  trees  which  can  neutralize  the  fer- 
ments of  our  prevalent  diseases. 

In  this  respect  nobody  ignores  what  the  city  of  New  York 
suffers  from  zymotic  and  malarious  poisoning  in  its  low  wards, 
kept  dilapidated,  and  in  its  upper  ones,  left  marshy,  in  order  to 
exact  bleeding;  rents  for  the  habitable  houses  in  the  middle  of 
the  city.  > 

In  this  strait,  few  among  us  are  aroused  to  the* necessity  and 
possibility  of  successfully  opposing  the  healthy  balsams  of  vege- 
tation to  these  deleterious  emanations  and  machinations.  Yet  it 
is  no  more  news  that  the  Eucalyptus  globulus  of  Australia  has 
been  found  to  possess,  by  its  simple  presence  in  a  region,  the 
most  marked  febrifugarpower. 

Does  this  tree  owe  its  property,  to  make  lands  salubrious  which 
would  otherwise  remain  malarious,  to  its  capacity  of  absorbing 


7 


enormous  quantities  of  marshy  water  and  noxious  vapors ;  or  to 
the  camphoraceous  odor  it  emits ;  or  (as  I  think)  to  the  capacity 
of  the  resinous  down  for  catching  the  fever-sporules  after  the 
manner  of  the  insect-eating  plants,  and  not  unlike  other  febri- 
fuges, the  cedar,  the  willow,  the  hemp,  the  sun-flower,  all  char- 
acterized by  a  sticky  down  or  resin. 

Such  are  the  main  empirical  facts  to  which  is  due  the  culti- 
vation of  the  eucalyptus  in  Europe,  Northern  Africa,  some 
malarial  districts  of  British  India ;  in  our  hemisphere,  in  Cali- 
fornia and  the  Southern  States.  Even  in  the  Northern  States, 
in  Michigan,  for  instance,  legislative  provisions  are  prepared  to 
grow  it  by  the  scientific  process  of  acclimatization.  New  York, 
no  less  interested  in  the  suppression  of  the  fever-poison,  will  not 
remain  contented  with  listening  to  the  results  of  others'  experi- 
ence, of  which  a  few  : 

Dr.  Benjamin  M.  Cromwell,  in  a  report  to  the  State  Board 
of  Health  of  Georgia,  says  of  several  of  these  trees  now  grow- 
ing in  Albany,  Ga. :  "At  night,  when  the  air  is  calm,  the  eu- 
calyptus emits  the  characteristic  odor  so  much  commented  upon 
by  those  who  have  described  it,  and  to  which  it  is  thought  to 
owe  its  antiseptic  properties.  So  decided  is  this  odor  in  passing 
in  the  vicinity  of  these  little  trees,  that  the  writer  can  well  un- 
derstand how  a  forest  of  them  could  impregnate  the  air  for  miles 
with  their  pleasant  odor,  and  that  the  stories  told  by  travellers 
concerning  its  febrifugal  properties  are  within  the  bounds  of  a 
reasonable  probability.'' 

The  London  Medical  Times  gives  some  remarkable  instances 
of  the  power  of  the  eucalypti  to  improve  the  health  of  mias- 
matic localities  : 

"  At  Paddock,  twenty  miles  from  Algiers,  a  farm  situated  on 
the  banks  of  the  Hamize  was  noted  for  its  extremely  pestilential 
air.  In  the  spring  of  1867,  about  13,000  eucalypti  were  planted 
there.  In  July  of  the  same  year,  the  time  when  the  fever  season 
was  to  set  in,  not  a  single  case  occurred ;  yet  the  trees  were  not 
more  than  nine  feet  high.  Since  then  complete  immunity  from 
fever  has  been  maintained." 

In  a  report  to  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences,  Mr.  Gim- 
bert  says  :  "  In  the  neighborhood  of  Constantine,  the  farm  of 


8 

Ben.  Machidlyn  was  in  bad  repute ;  it  was  covered  with  marshes 
both  in  winter  and  summer;  in  five  years  the  whole  ground  was 
dried  up  by  14,000  of  these  trees,  and  farmers  and  children  en- 
joy excellent  health." 

I  could  multiply  the  quotations,  but  these  must  suffice  to  show 
the  utility  of  planting  the  eucalyptus  in  our  city,  where  the 
fever,  far  from  receding,  extends  its  ravages. 

But  to  plant  is  one  thing,  and  to  ripen  is  another,  as  shown  in 
the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Health  of  the  State 
of  Michigan,  Dr.  H.  B.  Baker,  which  report  shows  the  eucalyp- 
tus growing  at  once  in  California  and  Georgia,  puny  when  set 
without  previous  nursing  in  Northern  Italy,  and  thriving  in 
France  after  undergoing  the  process  of  acclimatization. 

This  makes  our  way  clear ;  we  must  first  plant  the  eucalyptus 
in  our  parks  as  in  a  nursery  of  acclimatization,  in  order  to  be 
able  to  transplant  it  later  where  it  will  do  the  most  good. 

But,  supposing  that  the  eucalyptus  could  not  develop  its 
virtues  in  our  climate ;  let  us  foster  by  its  side  the  home  trees 
whose  febrifugal  properties  are  known,  but  have  not  yet  been 
scientifically  tested,  nor  developed  by  cultivation,  namely,  the 
Populus  balsamifera  (the  so-called  Balsam  of  Gilead),  several 
other  American  poplars,  willows,  cedars,  pines,  terebinths  like 
the  Abies  balsamea,  various  juglans,  like  the  walnut-trees,  etc. 
Besides  their  hygienic  properties,  these  trees  need  no  expen- 
sive acclimatization,  offer  the  largest  range  of  colors  and  forms 
for  landscape  gardening,  and  may  replace  with  advantage  the 
hackneyed  trees  and  shrubs  which  seem  to  be  chosen  to  adorn 
our  squares  because  they  have  neither  blossom,  color,  balsam, 
scent,  or  fruit. 

§  III.  Organization  of  our  Garden-schools. 
The  second  use  to  be  made  of  our  public  grounds  would  be  to 
set  apart  portions  of  their  land  and  water,  as  so  many  pages,  to 
illustrate  Natural  History  to  our  200,000  pupils  of  all  ages  and 
grades.  Two  correlated  facts  render  imminent  the  adoption  of 
this  plan  :  1st,  the  insufficiency  and  unhealthiness  of  the  city 
school-buildings,  and  2d,  the  unnaturalness  of  the  matters 
taught. 


9 


This  double-headed  criticism  does  not  mean  that  the  enemies 
of  our  public  schools  have  better  accommodations  and  superior 
methods  of  teaching,  but  that  the  best  school  of  the  present  is 
yet  the  school  of  the  past,  inadequate  in  size  and  grasp  to  the 
wants  of  the  nearest  future. 

But,  cutting  short  this  branching  of  our  question  where  it 
invites  the  more  to  a  philosophical  excursion,  let  us  adhere 
closely  to  our  second  proposition,  which  consists  in  demanding 
that  parts  of  the  public  grounds  of  this  city  be  reserved  for  the 
natural  expansion  of  our  system  of  popular  education. 

We  should  propose  to  proceed  in  this  work  slowly — as  it  be- 
hooves an  undertaking  which  it  will  take  long  to  perfect — yet  to 
begin  at  once,  upon  a  unity  of  plan  whose  immense  details  can 
be  indicated,  but  not  summarized  here. 

In  this  plan,  1st,  each  of  our  small  squares  would  be  adorned 
with  special  kinds  of  plants,  succeeding  each  other  as  the  season 
advances ;  and  all  these  squares,  would  present,  in  their  ensem- 
ble, not  far  from  the  schools,  a  tolerably  complete  cycle  of  clas- 
sified floral  botany.  The  Washington  Square  is  particularly 
fitted,  by  its  size  and  proximity  to  thirty  schools  and  many  fac- 
tories, for  that  kind  of  natural  and  hygienic  teaching. 

2d.  Every  one  of  our  parks  ought  to  contribute  large  tracts  of 
land  and  water  for  the  study  of  (a)  the  comparative  vegetation  of 
the  north,  south,,  and  west  of  this  country  ;  (b)  the  comparison, 
by  strongly  marked  specimens,  of  the  vegetables  of  the  different 
parts  of  the  world;  (c)  the  juxtaposition  of  the  trees,  plants, 
and  vines  which  furnish  food,  drink,  and  raiment  to  man ; 
(d)  the  classification  on  the  grounds  of  vegetable  medicines  and 
poisons,  according  to  their  properties ;  (e)  according  to  their 
origin,  and  to  the  circumstances  of  their  discovery  or  importa- 
tion ;  {f  )  the  growing  of  flowers,  plants,  and  trees,  in  view  of 
their  picturesque  apposition  in  field  or  house  decoration  ;  (g)  and 
to  almost  constantly  supply  model  leaves,  blossoms,  tendrils, 
twigs  to  the  young  aspirants  towards  the  industrial  arts  who  are 
opening  a  new  era  of  prosperity  for  this  country. 

3d.  For  the  organization  of  these  open-air  class-rooms,  it  would 
become  necessary  to  enter  into  special  arrangements  with  the  city 
and  suburban  railroads  to  obtain  a  nominal  fare  for  the  transfer 


10 


of  the  students  to  and  from  the  parks  during  the  non-business 
hours  of  the  day.  And  more,  to  restore  in  our  schools  the  Greek 
gymnasiarch,  or  Roman  archiatre,  whose  functions,  new  in  one 
sense,  old  in  others,  would  be  better  expressed  by  the  name  of 
Keeper  of  the  vital  forces,  or  chief  of  the  movement  of  the  train- 
ing, in  contradistinction  to  the  present  superintendent  of  the 
studies,  who  is  physiologically  the  chief  keeper  of  immobility  in 
the  school. 

This  idea — developed  in  my  report,  to  the  U.  S.  Secretary  of 
State,  the  Hon.  Hamilton  Fish,  on  Education  at  the  Vienna 
Universal  Exhibition  of  1873 — is  here  but  apparently  digressive, 
since  it  introduces  us  deeper  into  our  subject,  which  is  to  find  the 
means  of  restituting  the  city  grounds  to  their  historic  and  sci- 
entific destination,  and  to  keep  our  children  in  affectionate 
intercourse  with  nature. 

But,  to  act  the  beneficent  part  of  nature  in  education,  our 
parks  must  be  made  (a)  the  books  to  which  every  season  brings 
new  leaves  full  of  ideas  and  illustrations  ;  (b).  the  text  and  com- 
mentary of  the  development  and  solidarity  of  all  the  vital  forces  ; 
(c)  and  the  exponent  of  the  concordance  of  the  special  laws  of 
fecundation,  gemmation,  crystallization,  vegetable  dynamics  and 
mechanics,  electricity,  etc.,  with  the,  highest  generalizations  of 
order  in  the  universe. 

One  can  foresee  that  these  garden-schools  will  be  but  the  be- 
ginning of  the  enlargement  of  our  national  system  of  education, 
and  that  a  large  part  of  the  schooling  will  have  to  be  carried,  from' 
its  present  narrow  abodes  to  the  museums  of  art,  from  our  infec- 
tious brick  schools  to  the  garden-schools,  and  to  the  scientific  and 
industrial  collections,  where,  under  myriads  of  shapes,  ideas  are 
prisoned  in  matter,  expecting  to  be  taken  from  their  Hades  by 
young  brains  ready  to  bring  these  captives  to  a  new  and  higher 
life. 

In  a  word,  our  public  gardens,  becoming  public  schools,  must 
be  made  subservient  accessories  to  our  system  of  national  educa- 
tion ;  and  the  physician  charged  with  the  management  of  the 
vital  functions  of  the  wards  of  the  State  during  their  training 
will  be,  in  reality,  the  Keeper  of  the  vital  and  productive  forces 
of  the  nation. 


11 

Extract  feom  the  Minutes  of  the  Board  of  Education. 

From  the  Committee  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences, 
as  follows  : 

The  undersigned,  a  committee  of  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Sciences,  appointed  at  the  instance  of  Dr.  Seguin,  to  suggest 
methods  by  which  the  public  parks  of  New  York  could  be  made 
most  useful  to  the  citizens,  respectfully  submit  the  following 
resolutions : 

Resolved,  1.  That  the  public  parks  of  New  York,  like  those 
of  every  other  great  city,  are  of  inestimable  value  to  the  physical 
and  moral  health  of  the  citizens,  and  should  be  carefully  guarded 
from  every  kind  of  encroachment  and  misuse. 

2.  That  the  parks  of  New  York  should  not  only  be  made  at- 
tractive places  of  resort,  but  should  be  so  arranged  and  planted 
as  to  be  schools  of  taste  and  means  of  scientific  instruction.  To 
accomplish  these  ends  they  should  not  only  be  made  beautiful  to 
to  the  eye,  but  so  stocked  with  plants  and  animals,  as  to  give  those 
who  visit  them  impressive  views  of  the  variety  and  the  system  of 
nature.  Hence,  they  should  contain,  not  merely  masses  of  com- 
mon plants,  serving  the  purpose  of  so  much  vegetation  in  the- 
landscape,  but  that  vegetation  should  include  as  large  a  number 
as  possible  of  plants  of  scientific  or  economic  interest,  and  those 
so  arranged  and  labelled  as  to  educate  the  understanding  as  well 
as  please  the  eye. 

3.  That  since  it  is  a  well  established  truth  that  certain  kinds 
of  vegetation  exert  a  powerful  purifying  influence  upon  the 
atmosphere,  efforts  should  be  made  to  introduce  these  sanitary 
agents  for  the  purpose  of  neutralizing  the  malaria  which  per- 
vades so  much  of  the  city  and  environs  of  New  York  ;  and  that 
to  accomplish  this  object,  we  should  seek  to  acclimatize  such 
febrifuge  trees  as  the  Eucalyptus,  not  now  hardy  here,  or  to  in- 
troduce plants  of  this  tree  taken  from  some  higher  and  colder 
station  than  those  from  which  they  have  heretofore  come. 

4.  That  special  arrangements  should  be  made  to  facilitate  the 
free  use  of  our  parks  as  garden-schools  by  the  children  now  too 
much  confined  in  our  public,  school  buildings ;  and  that  some 
competent  physiological  and  hygienic  control  should  be  estab- 
lished to  guard  against  the  evils  which  the  weaker  pupils  con- 


12 


stantly  suffer  from  too  great  crowding,  and  too  long  confinement 
in  the  school-room. 

5.  That  the  members  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  have  heard 
with  great  pleasure  of  the  inception  of  a  movement  for  the 
establishment  of  a  Botanical  Garden  in  connection  with  the 
Central  Park,  believing  that  this  would  add  much  both  to  the 
attractiveness  and  utility  of  this  great  place  of  resort. 

6.  That  copies  of  the  foregoing  resolutions  be  transmitted  to 
the  Mavor  of  the  City,  the  Park  Commissioners,  the  Board  of 
Health,  the  Board  of  Education,  and  the  Trustees  of  the  Botani- 
cal Garden,  with  the  assurance  that  the  members  of  the  Academy 
of -Sciences  will  gladly  co-operate  in  any  possible  way  fur  the 
accomplishment  of  the  object  suggested  in  these  resolutioirs. 

Edward  Seguin,  Bent.  X.  Martin, 

J.  S.  Xewberry,  E.  B.  Peaslee, 

Thomas  Egleston,         Oliver  P.  Hubbard. 
New  York,  June  18,  1877. 

Official  Answer. — Executive  Department. 
City  Hall.  Xew  York,  July  3,  1877. 
President  Chandler,  Board  of  Health. 
President  M  artin,  Departmen  t  of  Parks. 
President  \Yood,  Board  of  Education. 

Gentlemen  : 

I  commend  to  your  kind  consideration  the  bearer,  Dr.  Edward 
Seguin.  He  will  explain  to  you  his  admirable  system  of  garden- 
schools,  etc.,  upon  which  I  should  like  your  report  when  con- 
venient. 

Yours  truly, 

Smith  Ely,  Mayor. 

This  favorable  letter  of  introduction  insured  its  bearer  a  good 
reception,  but  the  Heads  of  the  three  great  Departments  seemed 
to  be  taken  unaware  by  the  question  of  garden-schools.  They 
wanted  more  information,  particularly  the  precedents ;  and  as  I 
was  a  delegate  to  the  International  Medical  Congress  of  Ge- 
neva for  the  American  Medical  Association,  for  the  Association 
of  Physicians  for  Idiots,  etc.,  I  resolved  to  study  the  question 


13 


wherever  I  could  conveniently,  and  came  back  in  November  last 
with  the  documents  and  antecedents  on  garden-schools  embodied 
in  the  following  memoir,  which  I  read  before  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Sciences,  the  4th  of  February,  1878. 


GARDEX-SCHOOLS  IN  EUROPE  AXD 
AMERICA 


11  The  former  ideas  on  public  schools  are  exhausted  ;  new  social  and  individual 
wants  demand  new  solutions  of  the  problem  of  Universal  Education,  and  these 
solutions  rest  with  the  physician  and  physiologist."  (From  Intervention  of 
Physicians  in  Education,  a  paper  in  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Medical 
Association,  1877,  page  357.) 

Ideas,  like  seeds,  will  grow,  but  in  many  ways,  of  which  two : 
Not  only  wholesome  ideas  do  not  attain  at  once  their  full  ex- 
pansion, but  it  is  hardly  desirable  they  should.  For  what  is 
an  idea  which  comes  out  alone  in  the  world  .  .  .  ?  an  Utopia. 
On  the  contrary,  an  idea  supported  by  the  surrounding  minds 
grows  steadily,  and  is  soon  a  good  fruit-bearer. 

Of  this  latter  kind  was  soon  to  be,  in  my  estimation,  the  idea 
of  garden-schools,  with  which  I  entertained  you  last  year  (1877). 
The  public  said  at  once:  Oh!  yes,  the  kindergarten.  But  no. 
The  Garden-School  is  not  a  kindergarten,  not  even  a  botanical 
or  zoological  garden,  or  summer  school ;  it  is  itself :  an  adapta- 
tion of  our  gardens,  public  grounds,  museums,  and  collections  to 
the  enlargement  and  improvement  of  our  school-system. 

Xothing  is  so  easy  as  to  criticise  our  public  school ;  criticism 
comes  to  it  from  friends  and  foes.  But,  setting  aside  the  inten- 
tions of  both,  they  agree  on  one  point — that,  once  sufficient  for  a 
limited  number  of  children,  it  has  become  inadequate  to  the 
health-and-mind  wants  of  the  present  youthful  population.  Let 
us  therefore  substitute  for  that  commonplace  criticism  an  idea  of 
a  reconstructive  character. 

Of  this  character  is  the  idea  of  garden -schools  as  you  under- 
stood it  at  once ;  that  of  the  schooling  of  the  masses  being  made 
more  active,  attractive,  and  practical  by  its  transference  to  the 
open  air  whenever  it  is  possible. 


14 


But,  clear  as  this  idea  is  in  the  abstract  for  educated  minds, 
the  forms  which  it  may  and  will  assume  are  so  varied,  and  yet 
so  indefinite,  that  when  your  Commission  presented  the  plan  of 
garden-schools  to  the  mayor  of  the  city,  his  Honor  wanted  to 
consult  the  three  Heads  of  the  Departments  of  Public  Health,  of 
the  Parks,  and  of  Education.  And  these  High  Officials,  in  their 
turn,  approving  of  the  general  idea  of  garden  -schools,  demanded 
more  information  about  its  practicability,  and  the  particulars  of 
what  was  nearest  to  it  in  Europe. 

These  demands  classed  at  once  our  idea  with  those  which  the 
surrounding  minds  will  support  as  soon  as  they  are  fully  compre- 
hended. To  gain  for  it  this  sine  qua  non  support,  I  started  to 
see  the  public  gardens  and  grounds  most  akin  to  our  own 
ideal ;  and  I  came  back  with  more  definite  forms  of  open-air 
teaching,  by  which  the  school  may  be  almost  unlimitedly  enlarged 
without  erecting  new  buildings. 

Not  that  I  have  found  in  my  errand  through  a  part  of  Europe 
what  I  wanted ;  but  the  nearer  I  came  to  the  latest  improve- 
ments in  public  gardening,  the  more  I  felt  the  approach  of 
something  like  a  garden-school ;  though  I  must  confess,  nobody 
but  one  who  had  seen  a  garden-school  with  his  mind's  eyes  could 
have  foreseen  there  its  first  shape. 

These  European  gardens  are  mythological,  fashionable,  botan- 
ical, zoological,  conservatories  of  exotics,  or  acclimatization 
grounds,  often  of  a  mixed  character;  almost  all  disposed  for 
walking  and  riding,  and  for  the  varied  amusements  in  which 
children,  and  many  grown  people  as  well,  find  ample  scope  for 
mirth,  activity,  versatility,  imaging  and  imagining  powers. 

Some  of  these  public  grounds,  stately  in  lines  and  subdued  in 
tones,  unfold  in  their  rectangular  walks,  like  the  Pincio  of  Kome, 
all  the  known  busts  of  antiquity — copies,  to  be  sure,  but  correct 
enough  to  let  the  passer-by  read  on  them  the  marble-proofs  of 
the  texts  of  Tacitus,  Plutarch,  Appian:  that  is  already  garden- 
school  education. 

Other  parks,  not  unlike  the  Elysian  Fields,  are  peopled  with 
statues  which  now  expect  in  vain  the  apparition  of  gods,  heroes, 
or  kings:  Calypso  bewitching  Telemachus ;  Perseus  saving 
Andromeda ;  and  lower,  Dubarry-as-Diana  making  Louis-Endy- 


15 


mion  believe  she  wants  to  escape  through  the  misty  spray  of 
Neptune.  Such  were  Marly  and  Sceaux,  such  are  yet  the  two 
Trianons,  and  parts  of  Versailles,  Dresden,  Hampton  Court ;  and 
Monceaux,  which,  famed  for  lesser  divinities,  shades  under  its 
umbrella-like  catalpa  leaves  happy  babies  and  dreamy  adolescents. 

The  popular  gardens  of  Milan,  Florence,  the  Tuileries,  the 
Allees  of  the  Luxembourg,  the  Buttes  Chaumont,  and  the  Bois 
de  Boulogne,  the  Central,  Prospect,  Fairmount  and  Lincoln  parks, 
and  many  others  in  London,  Southampton,  Edinburgh,  etc.,  afford 
more  comfort  to  the  busy  than  instruction  to  the  young  folks ; 
yet  I  am  ready  to  admit  that  many  images  are  unconsciously 
stored  there  during  rambles,  which  turn  up  ideas  when  wanted. 

The  botanical  gardens  are  not  all  alike.  Those  of  Padua,  Pisa, 
Leyden,  Breslau,  Montpellier,  are  parts  of  the  vast  foundations 
of  the  Renaissance  which  revived  science  and  letters,  but  they 
stood  too  high  above  the  wants  of  the  masses  to  serve  us  as  models. 

A  more  popular  institution  was  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  created 
by  Buffon,  imitated  in  many  places,  which  developed  among 
plain  people  the  taste  for  Natural  History  and  its  accessory  arts. 
There,  many  young  naturalists  began,  as  Lamarck,  their  gratuitous 
studies  ;  Barrie  and  Mene,  two  poor  lads,  made  themselves  great 
sculptors,  partaking  of  dry-bread  breakfasts  with  their  brute 
models. 

To  the  appreciation  of  our  psycho-physiological  capacity  for 
receiving  impressions,  like  heliotypes  on  the  retina,  en  passant 
is  likely  due  the  creation  of  these  resorts  of  the  multitude,  where 
the  education  of,  and  by  the  senses,  is  incessant  and  forcible.  To 
the  English  belongs  the  honor  of  having  perfected  those  immense 
glass-palace-gardens,  invented  by  Girardin  to  exhibit  everything 
pleasant  and  instructive  to  everybody.  Their  Kensington  and 
Sydenham  (though  in  part  tainted  with  the  horrible  taste  of  the 
preceding  generation)  have  on  the  whole,  on  the  present  English 
aesthetics,  an  influence  which  can  be  measured  by  its  results. 

The  most  tangible  of  the  results  of  this  sight-education  is  (if  I 
appreciate  rightly  what  I  have  seen)  the  lately  finished  City  Hall 
of  Manchester.  Its  stately  forms  are  nothing  next  to  the  imag- 
inative variety  of  its  ornamentations  and  numberless  motives  ; 
and  its  precious  materials,  marbles,  onyx,  granite,  woods,  glass, 


16 


silks,  are  like  nothing  when  compared  to  the  artistic  finish  of 
their  workmanship.  One  must  see  the  poor  interior  of  the  pretty- 
faced  Hotel-de-ville  du  Havre,  built  at  the  same  time,  in  order 
to  appreciate  the  stride  made  since  twenty  years  by  the  English 
workmen,  artisans,  and  decorative  artists. 

Let  us  not  forget,  however,  that  the  immense  garden-collec- 
tions of  England  are  but  indirectly  connected  with  her  national 
teaching,  and  do  good  mainly  as  preparing  the  taste  of  their  in- 
numerable chance  visitors. 

I  was  about  coming  home  worried  and  rather  discouraged  at  not 
finding  more  of  my  looked-for  precedents  ;  that  is,  finding  many 
gardens  of  instruction,  but  none  directly  connected  with  a  public 
education-system,  when  I  came  across  two  more  interesting  facts.^ 

I  had  visited  the  popular  school  of  design  of  Manchester  (as 
well  as  those  of  Paris,  Lyons,  and  Geneva),  but  I  comprehended  its 
influence  only  when  I  saw  in  London  how  all  the  English  schools 
are  connected  with  that  part  of  the  Kensington  Institution  which 
gives  to  all  the  teachers  their  complimentary  and  obligatory 
diploma  for  proficiency  in  teaching  drawing,  modeling,  and  paint-* 
ing,  in  water-color  at  least.  Tiiis  special  organization,  taken  in 
conjunction  with  the  art-and-nature  shows  already  spoken  of, 
explains  the  progressuin  taste  of  the  English-  nation,  from  Milais 
to  the  thousand,  admirable  unnamed  designers  on  wood,  potters, 
or  modellers  in  clay.  Here  was  another  of  the  precious  links  I 
had  soughtj  for  the  better  enlargement  of  our  public  school  and 
teaching.  Of  course,  it  had  only  a  distant  relation  to  the  garden- 
school  ;  since  flowers,  twigs,  and  all  vegetable  models  in  their  na- 
tural freshness,  have  to  be  brought  daily  into  the  English  school, 
instead  of  the  school  being  carried  into  the  garden ;  the  process 
was  awkward,  but  the  result  was  good,  and  one  of  those  looked  for. 

The  other  discovery  I  made  was  nearer  to  our  object.  It  was 
that  of  a  ground  which  had  no  shape  yet,  except  its  natural  un- 
dulations tending  southward,  and  resembled  an  idea  developing 
itself  under  the  touch  of  spades.  In  October  last  the  Municipal 
Council  of  Paris  had  voted  an  appropriation  to  convert  the  park 
of  Montsouri  into  a  garden  of  instruction,  to  be  in  some  way 
connected  with  the  public  schools  of  the  city.  I  went  there  on  a 
line  morning,  and  found  the  gardeners  shaping  with  their  tools 


17 


the  idea  which  I  had  three  months  before  presented  to  this  New 
York  Academy  of  Sciences  in  its  philosophical  nakedness. 

However,  I  must  add  to  this  de  visit  testimony  that  I  could 
not  learn  in  detail  what  will  be  the  relations  of  this  beautiful 
garden-school  to  the  municipal  schools,  colleges,  or  private  teach- 
ings of  Paris ;  nor  what  could  be  the  similitudes  between  the 
improvements  in  course  of  execution  at  Montsouri  and  those 
contemplated  here. 

To  find  a  coincidence  in  the  details  of  execution  (the  mother - 
idea  being  the  same)  between  the  views  of  men  like  Charton, 
Littre,  and  Bourneville,  leading  members  of  the  Municipal 
Council  of  Paris,  with  ours,  would  have  been  a  good  fortune  in 
one  sense.  But  Littre  was  sick  when  I  went  to  see  him,  Bourne- 
ville could  not  be  met,  and  Charton  was  absent  at  Versailles ; 
so  that  I  could  learn  none  of  the  details  of  their  garden-school 
plans.  Therefore  you  are  at  liberty  to  make  this  mishap  of  mine 
fortunate  for  you  and  the  city  of  New  York.  It  leaves  you  the 
priority  of  the  idea  of  garden-schools,  since  you  endorsed  it 
before  it  was  considered  by  the  Municipal  Council  of  Paris  ;  and 
it  leaves  you,  too,  the  entire  originality  of  the  plans  of  execution, 
which  you  can  now  devise  in  complete  ignorance  of  those  of  the 
French  officials,  and  in  accordance  with  the  wants  of  the  Ameri- 
can youth. 

Those  of  you  who  have  so  kindly  listened  to  these  explanations 
and  descriptions  can  now  see  that  I  have  not  beaten  the  bushes 
in  vain ;  on  the  contrary,  that  I  have  brought  the  game  where 
you  are  at  liberty  to  take  or  to  let  it  escape. 

To  resume :  I  have  been  asked  if  the  idea  of  garden-schools 
has  precedents,  and  I  have  shown  its  growth  in  history ;  if  there 
are  any  gardens  used  for  teaching,  and  we  found  many  ;  if  grounds 
of  public  amusement  can  be  adapted  also  to  instruction,  and  this 
duality  of  object  is  the  salient  trait  of  the  most  famed  gardens ; 
if  there  are  already  in  Europe  garden-schools  connected  with  any 
system  of  popular  education,  and  we  found  only  one  such  in 
process  of  formation. 

As  a  result  of  this  survey,  if  I  am  asked  which  of  the  European 
gardens  of  instruction  can  serve  us  a  model,  I  answer :  none. 
Aping  Europe  in  education,  as  well  as  in  other  matters  of 
2 


18 


organic  importance,  is  not  desirable.  The  crops  of  women  and 
men  wanted  here  are  neither  the  low  and  needy,  nor  the  artificial 
and  unproductive  classes,  whose  juxtaposition  makes  the  pictur- 
esque side  and  the  dangerous  foundation  of  old  societies.  Like 
the  Councillors  of  the  city  of  Paris,  we  want  the  garden -school — 
not  for  a  few, -but  for  all.  But  we  deprecate  copying  even  their 
Montsouri  Park — if  we  could,  because  such  creations  must  spring 
up  from  the  genius  of  each  nation,  as  well  as  from  historical 
precedents. 

Following  these  indications,  we  have  found,  in  the  course  of 
our  inquiry  on  the  European  gardens,  that  their  philosophy  runs 
quite  parallel  to  their  chronology  ;  both  showing  gardens  to  have 
been  active  instruments  of  education,  as  people  understood  its 
problems  at  different  periods.  Now,  turning  our  regards  toward 
home,  we  find  the  same  tendency  to  shape  the  gardens  and  the 
parks,  and  the  collections  of  art  and  of  natural  history  together, 
as  means  of  general  education  ;  all  that  we  need,  therefore,  is 
to  do  it,  not  slovenly  as  by  fate,  but  upon  a  preconcerted  plan 
commensurate  with  the  destinies  of  the  nation. 

In  this  view  let  us  recapitulate  what  we  have  and  what  we 
need.  We  have  the  most  excellent  and  numerous  school-build- 
ings, though  notoriously  insufficient  for  the  teaching  and  com- 
pletely inadequate  to  the  training.  But  though  there  are  near 
them  museums,  libraries,  gardens,  parks,  exhibitions,  etc.,  the 
public  schools  remain  isolated  from  these  resorts  of  taste,  activ- 
ity, interest,  and  learning  ; — a  fault  which  lies  both  ways. 

If  we  make  an  exception  to  this  general  criticism,  it  is  for  the 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  whose  trustees  have  tried  early  to 
establish  the  link  between  it  and  the  common  school.  In  1869  they 
promised  "  it  would  soon  be  opened,  not  only  as  an  attraction  to 
visitors  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  but  as  a  school  in 
which  our  own  children  will  acquire  information  ;  "  adding : 
"We  feel  that  too  much  stress  cannot  be  laid  upon  the  impor- 
tance of  the  institution  as  a  means  of  public  education."  Their 
report  of  1872  is  no  less  explicit,  when  it  nominally  "  invites  the 
teachers  and  pupils  of  public  schools,  and  the  inmates  of  chari- 
table and  benevolent  institutions,  in  order  that  the  museum  be 
used  for  educational  purposes,  as  well  as  to  afford  recreation 


19 


to  the  public.  (Two  days  are  reserved  for  the  schools.)  This 
arrangement,  by  furnishing  opportunities  to  the  teachers  to  ex- 
plain the  specimens  to  their  classes,  will  make  the  Museum  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  educational  system  of  our  city." 

These  wise  provisions  being  made  on  one  side,  why  were  they 
not  carried  out  by  the  other  party  ?  Because  of  the  absence  of 
a  link  between  the  school  proper  and  the  museum — because  the 
teachers  were  not  prepared ;  and  I  am  sorry  to  say,  will  not  be 
prepared  for  some  time,  since  the  pupils  of  the  Normal  School 
across  the  Central  Park — who  are  said  to  qualify  themselves  for 
teaching — do  not  come  to  the  Museum  to  learn  how  to  teach 
Natural  History,  no  more  than  they  go  to  the  Art  Museum,  or  to 
the  School  of  Design,  to  learn  how  to  teach  drawing.  Yet,  in 
Nature  are  found  all  the  noble  forms ;  by  the  hand  these  forms 
become  the  property  of  man  ;  to  train  the  hand  of  our  vast 
population  would  be  to  elevate  among  the  laborious  communities 
the  American  People  :  there  is  the  link. 

It  is  painful  to  acknowledge  that  our  art  institutions  are  be- 
hind the  Museum  of  Natural  History,  and  far  behind  the  Ken- 
sington School  in  liberality  towards  the  children,-  and  in  provision 
for  the  art-education  of  their  teachers :  as  if  art  was  no  bread  to 
the  needy  as  a  work,  as  it  is  bread  to  the  soul  as  a  jouissanoe — 
the  redeemer  of  sordid  interests  or  besoins,  the  commentator  and 
revealer  of  everything  noble  in  human  nature. 

But  why  do  we  give  to  these  forms  of  teaching  a  place  in  the 
garden-school  %  Because  they  have  it  in  fact  and  in  history, 
from  the  typical  gardens  of  the  Academy  of  Athens  to  the 
most  modern  ones  in  Europe.  These  two  forms  are  equivalent 
and  substitutive  ;  the  weather  permitting,  the  teaching  is  given 
in  the  open  air ;  the  weather  changing,  the  children  find  shelter 
and  lessons  in  the  museums.  The  principle  is  to  not  teach  any- 
thing in-doors  which  can  be  learned  out ;  nothing  to  be  taught 
from  books  which  can  from  nature ;  nothing  from  dead  nature 
which  can  from  the  living. 

Viewed  in  this  light,  and  compared  with  those  we  have  seen 
abroad,  our  Central  Park  presents  a  strange  contrast.  In  its 
conception  and  execution  the  public  has  been  treated  like  a 
prince,  but  the  children  rather  niggardly  ;  though  by  its  consti- 


20 


tuition  and  by-laws  "  The  Central  Park  must  be  used  for  educa- 
tional purposes  as  well  as  to  afford  recreation  to  the  public." 

To  excuse  this  breach  of  such  a  clear  and  costly  covenant,  it 
may  be  said  that  a  park  cannot  well  be  planned  with  two  ob- 
jects ;  that,  if  it  is  a  pleasure-ground,  it  cannot  be  a  study-ground, 
etc.  But,  in  fact,  many  European  gardens  are  both.  Among 
others,  Kew  has  seventy-five  acres  devoted  to  study,  and  so  dis- 
posed that  none  of  the  pleasure-seekers  are  gloomed  by  their  sight, 
nor  the  students  disturbed  by  the  idlers. 

This  sophism  disposed  of  experimentally,  nothing  remains  but 
to  retrace  our  steps,  by  doing  as  much  in  our  parks  for  children 
as  we  do  for  sport  and  fashion.  Otherwise,  seeing  nothing  but 
ride,  riding,  riders,  they  will  consider  sport  as  the  main  object 
of  life,  and  waste  their  precious  capacities  where  nothing  is 
needed  but  a  large  inheritance  and  leather  breeches. 

This  remark  is  hardly  sharp  enough,  considering  how  many 
promising  young  men  have  ended  their  fast  park-riding  by  fast 
running  away.  Moreover,  the  pleasure-grounds  provided  for 
children  are  unvaried,  and  the  smaller  ones  are  denied  en- 
trance to  the  pa"rk  with  their  own  goat-wagon — an  "  active  " 
exercise  rendered  "  passive  "  as  a  monopoly  in  mercenary  hands — 
these  little  riders  having  not  even  a  reserved  avenue  where  they 
and  their  mamma  or  nurse  could  be  safe  from  intrusion  or  danger. 

But,  to  come  to  apparently  more  important  topics — though  I 
think  the  best  school  till  the  tenth  year  is  the  play-ground — and 
not  to  tarry  in  demonstrating  what  our  parks  would  gain  in  vari- 
ety, were  they  managed  according  to  the  letter  and  spirit  of  their 
constitution,  "  for  pleasure  and  education,"  we  formally  demand 
that  they  contain  garden-schools,  or  grounds  devoted  to  education. 

Here  wre  will  naturally  meet  with  the  assertion  that  the  bo- 
tanical garden  prepared  by  the  city  will  virtually  be  a  garden- 
school.  But  the  difference  between  these  two  forms  of  study- 
grounds  is  too  great  for  their  confusion  not  to  be  insisted  upon. 
In  the  first  place,  a  botanical  garden  must  contain  many  plants, 
arranged  according  to  a  complete  system  of  botany  ;  in  a  garden- 
school  a  few  typical  specimen  plants  suffice,  arranged  after  some 
simple  classification,  as  de  Candolle's.  Besides  this,  everything 
else  differs.    In  the  garden-school  some  plants  must  be  grouped 


21 


according  to  their  affinities,  so  as  to  express  their  sympathetic 
and  physiological  existence ;  others  by  their  climatic  habits ; 
others  for  their  qualities  or  properties,  domestic,  nutritious,  medi- 
cal, toxic,  etc. ;  others  as  models  of  lines  and  colors  in  the  classes 
of  arts  and  industries.  The  converse  practice  of  presenting 
this  whole  vegetable  world  bereft  of  all  its  meanings,  even  of 
its  names,  is  not  easy  to  characterize. 

But,  to  continue  our  description  of  the  garden-school :  The 
zoology  of  the  park  would  gain  in  scholastic  interest  if  the  num- 
ber of  animals  was  diminished  and  their  variety  increased  ;  and 
most  important,  if  their  surroundings  were  made  conformable  to 
their  natural  history  and  habits.  Also,  in  some  quiet  corner  of 
this  department,  children  would  be  immensely  interested  to  find 
in  full  operation  the  appliances  for  artificial  hatching,  breeding, 
and  fattening  poultry,  raising  the  silk- worm,  etc.  There  are  hap- 
piness and  millions  in  the  creation  of  the  tastes  of  the  people 
for  such  productive  and  peaceful  occupations. 

There  is  no  more  reason  for  the  waters  of  a  park  to  look  dead 
than  for  its  trees  to  look  meaningless.  They  can  be  made  lively 
with  the  appliances  of  hydraulics  and  with  specimens  of  their 
own  powers ;  they  may  represent  miniatures  of  the  great  Ameri- 
can water-falls,  Niagara,  Montmorency,  etc. ;  they  must  be  alive 
with  shells,  fishes,  water-weeds,  and  blossoms ;  and  show  plainly 
the  wonders  and  remunerations  of  fish  culture. 

Geolog}'  claims  for  its  study  the  rocks  and  cave  of  the  park  ; 
not  only  on  account  of  their  interesting  formation,  but  for  the 
facility  they  offer  of  representing,  by  insertion  in  sections,  the 
mineral  wealth  and  topography  of  the  country. 

Many  other  teachings  of  realities  have  their  place  surely 
marked  in  our  future  garden -school,  as  drawing  and  carving 
from  plants  and  animals — all-open-air  schools,  which  need  no 
more  buildings  and  will  breed  no  contagiums.  "We  insist  only  on 
the  adoption  of  the  principle,  confident  that  its  consequences, 
health  and  healthy  knowledge,  will  follow. 

We  claim  the  use  of  a  part  of  the  Central  Park  for  public 
education  in  virtue  of  its  Constitution,  which  consecrates  it 
equally — that  is  to  say,  in  equal  terms — to  the  pleasure  of  the 
public  and  to  the  instruction  of  the  youth. 


22 


We  claim  the  accession  of  the  grounds  and  collections  which 
belong  to  the  city,  or  come  under  its  control,  and  particularly  of 
Washington  Park  and  museums,  to  the  other  means  of  public 
instruction  and  hygiene. 

We  claim  the  scattering  of  the  garden-teaching  all  over  the 
available  city-grounds,  instead  of  its  proposed  concentration  in  a 
privileged  enclosure.  These  grounds  to  be  selected,  either  for 
their  fitness,  or  for  their  proximity  to  schools  or  industries,  for 
instance.  In  the  remnant  of  park  called  the  Battery,  the  front- 
•  ing  could  be  made  the  rugged  home  of  madrepores,  astreas,  sea- 
anemones,  sea-weeds,  etc.  The  lands  of  Jones'  Woods  would 
£row  the  heavy  American  timber,  and  their  water-front  serve  as 
aquarium  and  water-gynasium.  The  Sahara  called  Tompkins 
Square  could  generate  oxygen  if  it  was  thickly  planted  with 
aromatics,  vegetables,  and  flowers.  The  Washington  Square  is 
wanted  for  an  avarium,  rosarium,  and  other  collections  of  flowers 
and  vines,  in  order  uot  only  to  teach  the  scholars,  but  to  elevate 
several  of  our  best  art-industries. 

This  park  is  surrounded  by  a  population  which  enfranchises 
us  from  the  enormous  tribute  once  paid  to  foreign  skill  for  arti- 
ficial flowers,  leaves,  trimmings,  bird-mounting,  etc.  A  little 
encouragement  by  fine  models,  and  a  slight  education  of  the 
eye,  would  enable  this  truly  respectable  part  of  our  population 
to  soon  compete  with  the  Italian  and  the  French  in  foreign 
markets,  and  to  levy  industrial  tributes  where  we  were  once 
tributaries.  As  an  illustration,  three  sisters  of  one  of  my  friends 
studied  the  perfect  roses  fronting  Luxembourg  with  such  suc- 
cess that  Batton  paid  for  their  roses  six  dollars  each ;  and  there 
is  in  that  row  four  well-known  rose-trees  which  must  have  repaid 
to  the  city  of  Paris  one  million  francs  in  unequalled  art-imi- 
tations. 

I  regret  to  say  (but  it  is  necessary  to  say  it)  there  is  not  in  all 
our  parks  a  decent  rose  worth  copying,  nor  a  pink,  a  hyacinth,  a 
meadow-saffron  peeping  with  naturalness  through  the  young 
grass  to  invite  the  pencil  of  artists  to  grace,  or  the  tongue  of 
children  to  picturesqueness.  But  my  heart  is  too  full  of  the 
emptiness  of  idea  which  rules  these  public  matters  to  continue 
its  criticism  ;  humiliation  silences  me.    As  a  last  advice  : 


23 


What  is  for  select  children  a  real-school  on  a  tray,  and  for 
infants  a  kindergarten  on  a  quadrated  table,  we  want  for  all 
the  children — a  comprehensive  garden-school  system,  taking 
place  in  true  gardens,  complemented  by  museums,  and  comple- 
menting the  public  school. 

In  support  of  this  demand,  we  have  shown  that  the  improve- 
ments in  European  gardening  are  all  that  way — that  is,  tending 
to  make  these  public  resorts  more  educational ;  we  have  seen 
them  losing  their  mythological,  princely,  or  technical  features, 
and  assuming  more  and  more  the  character  of  popular  institu- 
tions of  taste,  of  learning,  and  of  health-culture. 

I  would  not  stop  to  argue  how  much  more  necessary  than  in 
Europe  is  the  advent  of  this  latter  class  of  educational  institu- 
tions in  our  Republic,  where  the  problem  of  education  contains 
the  solution  of  the  social  problem,  and  where  all  must  receive, 
not  the  highest  possible  education,  but  the  naost  physiological. 
And  it  is  directly  by  its  physiological  basis  and  bearing  that  this 
projected  enlargement  of  our  school  and  school -system  concerns 
this  Academy  of  Sciences. 

Otherwise,  the  plan  of  the  garden -schools  is  so  simple  that 
one  looks  in  vain  for  an  objection  to  \\&fiat.  But  what  is  not  so 
simple  is  the  obtention  of  the  good-will  and  concourse  of  several 
city  authorities  to  its  execution.  The  present  lecture  is,  in  fact, 
a  memorial  written  to  bring  these  authorities  to  a  consensus 
uniform  with  the  conclusions  presented  last  spring  to  the  Major 
by  a  committee  of  this  Academy.  His  Honor  and  his  counsel- 
lors wanted  more  documents,  particularly  in  regard  to  European 
precedents;  I  went  to  seek  these  precedents  with  my  own  eyes, 
and  I  wrote  them  down  as  you  just  heard  ;  not  to  convince  you — 
since  you  were  convinced  at  the  first  audition — but  to  invite  you 
to  give  the  same  support  to  this  matured  plan  of  out-door  education 
which  you  gave  last  year  to  its  first  and  less  precise  proposition. 

Just  now  great  efforts  are  made  to  tear  a  few  loaves  from  the 
mouths  of  trusty  teachers,  in  order  to  erect  new  school-houses 
for  the  crowding-in  of  a  few  hundred  more  pupils.  Therefore, 
this  is  no  unfavorable  time  to  show  where  there  are  better  rooms 
and  healthier  accommodations  for  thousands  more  children,  for 
the  better  training  of  their  active  functions,  of  their  executive 
senses,  and  of  the  higher  sense  of  the  dutiful  and  the  beautiful. 


24 


In  consequence,  I  beg  the  Academy  to  name  a  committee  for 
the  presentation  of  this  memorial  to  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  to  the  Head  Commissioners  of  the  Parks,  of  Public 
Health,  and  of  Education,  and  to  the  superintendents  of  the  public 
schools  of  New  York,  of  Brooklyn,  and  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
advising  them  to  take  this  plan  of  garden-schools  into  practical 
consideration. 

E.  Seguest. 

New  York,  Feb.  1,  1878. 

After  the  reading  of  this  memorandum,  the  Academy  nomi- 
nated a  committee  to  report  upon  the  action  to  be  taken  in  the 
matter.  But  the  wicked  gets  up  earlier  than  the  just.  Before 
that  committee  could  meet,  the  news  came  that  the  Mayor  would 
listen  to  the  proposition  of  taking  part  of  Washington  Square 
for  an  armory,  and  to  the  objections  which  could  be  made  to 
this  proposition,  previously  to  sending  his  approval  of  it  to  the 
legislature. 

Taken  by  surprise,  land-owners,  physicians,  and  citizens  of  all 
social  standing,  protested  ;  the  Academy  did  the  same  in  writing, 
and  verbally  one  of  its  committee  qualified  the  premeditated 
spoliation  as  a  crime. 

Fifteen  minutes  later,  the  authorities  of  the  city  had  endorsed 
the  iniquity  and  sent  it  to  be  made  a  law  at  Albany. 

Now,  let  us  suppose  that  it  has  become  a  law.  Will  it  be  less 
iniquitous?  The  destruction  of  St.  John's  Park  was  legally  con- 
summated. Does  not  its  iniquity  grow  every  year  more  odious 
as  children  die  around  it  of  summer  complaint  ?  Will  the 
wresting  of  the  Washington  Play-ground  be  less  loathsome  when 
it  is  legalized  ?  Its  inception,  plotting,  planning  legiferation  are, 
and  will  remain,  singly  and  collectively,  a  crime. 

We  appeal  from  this  crime  to  the  mothers  who  sent  their  in- 
fants there  ;  to  the  teachers,  who  know  so  well  the  wants  of  air 
of  their  pupils;  to  the  physicians,  who  have  to  contend  against 
the  killing  oppression  of  our  atmosphere ;  to  the  memory  of  the 
best  friend  the  children  of  the  poor  and  middle  classes  ever  had, 
and  who  departed  at  the  time  his  benevolent  influence  was  most 
needed— THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 


